Trademark

Apple lost a key decision concerning its desire to trademark the term "App Store" in Australia today. The decision was made to dismiss Apple's appeal to Australian courts after The Registrar of Trade Marks refused the company's registration of the trademark last March.

Candy Crush Saga developer King has abandoned its attempt to trademark the word "candy" in relation to video games, clothing, and more. While King's application was approved last month, the trademark had yet to meet full approval.

Samsung has released its latest ad which will also be the ad it will show during this Sunday’s Super Bowl. Samsung has a long running ad campaign that tries to make fun of Apple and this one is no different. In the ad, you can see three guys sitting around a table brainstorming ideas for the actual ad.

A clear glass storefront surrounded by a paneled façade. Rectangular recessed lighting units. Cantilevered shelves. Rectangular tables arranged in a line in the middle of the store parallel to the walls and extending from the storefront to the back of the store. Yep, that's an Apple Store alright. And that's the wording that Apple included in their trademark application for the Apple Store design, inarguably as much of an icon for Apple as the patented designs of their products. The trademark was granted last week by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple has agreed to pay $60 million dollars to Proview Technology, the Chinese company with which they've had a longstanding dispute over the iPad trademark, recently litigate before the Guangdong High People's Court court.

Apple is looking to secure their trademark in the world of top-level domains, along with many other mobile giants like Sony, Samsung and HTC. There were a grand total of 1,930 applicants for new URL suffixes to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. For the next 60 days, the public has the right to comment on any of the applications and the deciding panels will take it under consideration before granting top-level domains. Of geographic note, Africa and Latin America are making their first applications to the organization.

Apple and Proview are apparently in talks to settle the case of who has rights to the iPad trademark in China, and rumor has it Apple's initial offer was $16 million. This is after Proview's initial ask of a whooping $2 billion in February, which they've since lowered to $63 million according to anonymous sources.

Apple had to attend a court in China last night as it became embroiled in a battle over the rights to the iPad name in China. Proview, a company which has already filed for bankruptcy claims that Apple does not own the trademark for the iPad in China. Proview has already caused disruption to the sale of the iPad in China and is looking to gain a complete ban.